List of Famous people with last name Thornton

Raymond Hoyt Thornton Jr. was an American attorney and politician. He was a Democratic U.S. Representative for Arkansas' 4th congressional district from 1973 to 1979 and the 2nd district from 1991 to 1997.

Zach Thornton is a retired goalkeeper who spent 16 seasons in Major League Soccer with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (1996–97), Chicago Fire (1998–2006), Colorado Rapids (2007), New York Red Bulls (2008) and Chivas USA (2008–11). He was the starting goalkeeper for the Fire when it won MLS Cup '98 in its inaugural year. He, Chris Armas,. and C. J. Brown are the only three Fire players to be a part of all six of the club's domestic championships from 1998 through 2006.

John Thornton (1720–1790) was a British merchant and Christian philanthropist who became immensely wealthy through investment in the North Sea Russia trade, and as a result of his Christian faith, gave much of his money away to a huge number of good causes, in so doing becoming the greatest philanthropist of the eighteenth century. Hugely successful in business, it was said that at the time of his death in 1790, Thornton had become the second most wealthy man in Europe.